Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran has put himself in jail.

Sheriff Curran will spend a week in the Lake County jail among inmates. Some of them he put there years ago when he was a prosecutor. Curran says he wants to see the jail from the inmates’ perspective. He says treating inmates like caged animals just creates gangs and more crime. That’s why Curran says he wants to observe the programming offered at the jail that encourages rehabilitation.

CURRAN: As a practical matter, essentially everyone is going to be released. so what are we doing to make this world safer for the victims? To make this world safer for society? Those are the questions that have to be answered at the end of the day.

Curran says he’ll leave the jail next Wednesday.